At the Reference Desk

...in a Northern town...
...because I do this on the fly, don't sue me for typos, grammar glitches or other peeves...
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"That which does not kill us makes us stronger." --Friedrich Nietzsche

Candlestick charting for dummies? [well that's 6+ years old, but there is a Candlestick charting demystified from 2012 I can try getting--yes please]

Why can my boss who lives in [next town] use this library? [well, the state let's you use your public library card anywhere in the state, so...you can use his library too: "Why would I want to?" Awww....]

Consumer Reports on cameras

Help with scan-to-print station

Can we load stuff off a thumb drive? [yup]

Help printing

T out here asking when I'm going to lunch, etc., and 'warning' me about the logo "thing" that's going on this afternoon....yeah, nice timing Boss, an hour before we close on a Saturday

Dirty looks and scowls and sighs from Professor Shhhhhhhhh! because he needs SILENCE for chess-playing. Asshat-combover

12:00

Books on Buddhism for a co-member of my Friday night AFG

Help saving resume

Just noticed that Prof. Shhh is wearing a HGTV RoseParade Crew hoodie. Now I want to ask if it's for realz

[phone] How to get from the nearest interstate to the local post office ["can I get there by 1?" only if you drive like an asshole]

Where is the non-fiction? [right here, but what are you looking for?] The crash of 2016 [checked out on Monday, do you want to do a hold?] Nope

...how about on Kindle or audio? [it is available that way but no one local has it; ILL the CD?] No, thanks

3:30

The internet just kicked me off [well, yeah, dude you've been online ALL DAY--sigh--I give him a short-term pass while he blusters about taking a quiz and no warning and how he can't have been hear six hours....]

Board member comes to tell me that our ladder (the one that belongs in my household) is still behind his sister-in-law's house and he's worried it might get stolen (it's been there since spring and the project isn't done yet, so yeah)

Logo "thing"? [upstairs]

[phone] Four Wanda Brunstetter books, none of which is here, and we only own one of them anyway

I finish ILLing a DVD that T said wasn't in our part of the state to ILL--yes it is

Refill the printers, check to see who's hanging around in the study areas, listen to applause from upstairs re the logo "thing"

"Can I have headphones?" We have earbuds (and normally headphones) to purchase for $1. "Oh. Nevermind"

Note to staff about Werewolf suddenly drifting towards scamming for money and lying about returning material -- and as I wrote that, she came over to ask about printing and somehow she's killed the taskbar/tab of the Firefox page, so ... yeah she's still coming in in spite of the 10 month break in updating this blog

"I don't have a 'user key' for this class I'm trying to register for" Click on "pay" and you don't need one. ;-)

Sam won't let kid login -- I go over and eventually it works (had to delete his password...twice!)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

What I'm doing between questions: checkign the Death Dates list from last September to see what's in our catalog...so . far . behind . . .

Two librarians are gone today, as well as two regular circ staff, and the director. This week has been rather mayhemish already, not even counting the staff drama.

2:00

Pay to print

I cannot stand looking at this crapola tape residue on the top of the desk another second!! Clorox wipes and various flat edges and elbow grease and it's finally gone--and now there is one 8" square of the desk that is cleaner than clean

Local weekly paper

Meanwhile, I'm being visually assaulted by a pudgy middle-aged buttcrack 10 feet from me. Dude could set the building on fire and I wouldn't look his direction

Question from tech person about whether DVDs have labels

Problem with logging on to the net with guest pass

I restart a few computers that are looking weird...and that doesn't really help

...and discover someone else with a shirt/trouser gap....

Pay to print

Butt-Crack Dude's phone rings ("What Does the Fox Say?") and he leaves

Two people sign up for Study Room use and by the way, who is that in #3? No one signed in...I check and she's just leaving

Paper is back

There are a lot of homeless guys people here today, meeting and greeting

Study room shifting around

Pay to print

Another tech with a question about Scooby Doo DVDs = small kids' section or older kids' section?

Want ads fodler is back (oh, yeah, didn't even notice it was gone)

In my email:

I just got off the phone with a representative from [vendor]. They make customized pencils and magnets and water bottles and the like for businesses and libraries. This is the second time I have had someone try to sell me mood pencils for $1,000 a box. I do not want to deal with them anymore. They come up on the caller ID as '[acronym].' If you see that and they ask for me, please tell them I am unavailable or not interested.

I would add "dead" to the last, just to be sure they got the point ("the point" ha ha ha--I'm losing it)

Better yet, refer them to me. I am long past holding back on telling pushy vendors to leave my staff and myself alone.

[phone] My Brother Sam Is Dead (our copy is out)

Purchase headphones

Non-local library patron needs to use internet; I add his card to our database

More time online

Library's address (for online map directions)

Chat with the usual regular guy--that I like--which he begins by saying "Good night for chili" and I ask if he's bringing me a bowl since I work till 9. I really do like this guy a lot

Mac (uh oh) PDF document saved on his laptop, won't print when USB is in our computers...ok, so technically, it will print but the parts he's filled in don't show up [some kind of 'translation' issue]; he ends up suggesting, theoretically, that he plug his Macbook into our printer and going direct. "Theoretically," it works, and he can fax now those "theoretical" pages off to the employer

Celiac disease and gluten-free stuff

Why do we have two different kinds of headphones back here to sell? Email sent...

4:00

[phone] Dr Brand that I used to bring my aunt to in the 1930s...yup, found him and the guy tells me a couple of fun stories about the Good Old Days

Friday, November 29, 2013

Dude needs help getting his friend to [nearby state] and out of dude's basement because dude's wife is getting increasingly annoyed with friend living in their basement -- fifteen minutes of trying to come up with suggestions for him, and generally listening to the dude vent. Another patron pokes he head around a pillar 10 feet away and sighs heavily before sitting back down at his computer....

....so once dude leaves, I ask The Sigher if he needs help. His reply: "What, did that guy just come in to socialize?" I reply that he needed help and it was a complicated situation (which this guy CERTAINLY could hear), and it is my job to help people. "He's been talking for 10 minutes!" ??? Well, people do talk.... "This is why I come in here early!" [???WTF JUST HAPPENED?? Bah humbug to you too, asswipe *]

Property tax bills for homes in sunbelt state [actually, first I looked up her card number, but eventually it just seemed easier to do the whole thing for her]-- she even pays me for printing without me having to remind her

10:00

...waiting for The Sigher to get all bent out of shape about two women working together on a computer across the reference area; there is instruction going on, and not particularly silently....

Help with getting into Word [to type her annual Christmas letter, just like last year and, apparently, the year before that!]

Local weekly paper

Pay to print

3:00 in children's room

The day hasn't improved since I left the desk this morning, so I'm just trying to hang on at this point

"Why is my card blocked?" [no parent's name in Guardian field, and fines of more than $6]

Worried 8- or 9-year-old notices her mom has left the room, can't find her, didn't hear her say she'd be back in "15 minutes"...is concerned, even though her stuff is all here -- aah, here she comes!

Bathroom key

Those are crafts to take home -- "Can I take two?"

"How much was that fine?" asks the kid from earlier

Keys for cleaning dude

...and back

4:00 in children's room

There is card-playing going on at one of the tables across from me: Go Fish, I think

...they've moved on to War

Just realized I'm freezing!!

Bathroom key

"Where do I return books?" [at circulation, which you walked past] Oh, duh. "What about my daughter's first library card picture?" [still hanging on the wall--he finds it] "OK, good, now I'll go back over and return these and head to Santa's hut to get it warm for him and the kids tonight." [I love living in a small town!!]

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* Mind you, this hits a little harder today anyway, since at my review on Wednesday I was told to keep the chatter in the workroom down, and also to "treat the staff the way you treat the patrons" i.e., keep my anger in check. So, yeah, asswipe...you're lucky your a patron, or I guess I'd probably rip you to pieces. Cuz apparently I do that to staff.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

What I'm doing between questions: checking the catalog for dead people--I'm only 10 months behidn.

9:00 in kids' roomThe entire children's room has been overhauled in the last day and a half--I knew about some of it when I left work on Thursday, but today it's totally rearranged, except for the books. And, naturally, the only email from the children's librarian mentions one part of the whole thing, something that's been ongoing for several days this week. So, yay: where are the puppets? I dunno. Where are the magazines? I dunno. Where are the intermediate-level activity kits? I dunno. [OK, actually, I do know, but only because I've prowled around and been given a heads-up by another staff member]

Easy books about occupations [they are now with the occupation....]

The Calling (Tiernan) [our copy isn't there, so I place a hold on it]

Woman from church comes in with a new pink cast (replacing the former over-the-elbow cast of two weeks ago); she's looking for books for her grandkids

Librarian J wanders in with new magazines to shelve--and doesn't know where the magazines are now

Bathroom keys for cleaning dude ... and back

Twerpy kid, his sister, and mom leave [he'd been pestering the grandpa/grandson on their computer--thank God for other kids' patient grandpas!]

11:00

[phone] Do we have public computers with floppy drives? [no, but we do have an external floppy drive that patrons can borrow]

I've already had to move three public-area chairs that apparently Librarian J didn't notice were completely out of their places, and while I'm up a do a quick walk-thru to get the lay of the land; there's a guy reading the paper with one of his shoes off ... lol

Of Mice and Men [for a h.s. kid--and it's here!--who just finished 1984 and loved it. YAY!]

Help with setting up Excel page for bill payment [the gentleman calls me "Señorita" thus earning massive cred for being blind to all the gray in my hair... ;-)]

Copier not giving change--out of order sign on it

12:00

Cleaning guy wheels past with mops, et al. [I suppose cleaning the bathrooms at the same time you mop them would cause some kind of short circuit?]

Oh, really?! BOTH copiers are out?! NIIIIIIICE. Good thing the scan station is working, unless you need legal-size